With .8 seconds left in the game, Derrick Rose abided by Lawler’s Law, missed a free throw, failed to tie the score at 100 and the Clippers did something most thought was impossible: they won back to back games on back to back nights on the road.

Not that they didn’t try to give that game away. They were up by as much as 7 with less than a minute left to play in the game. But then Derrick Rose was open at the top of the key, completely leaving Baron Davis in the dust and went straight to the rim for the lay-up and the foul. Not a problem, right? The Clippers were up 4 with the ball, except for Eric Gordon’s turnover problems kicked up again and he gave the ball up on a simple inbounds play. At this point the whole arena in Chicago felt the anticipation of a miraculous comeback win, because, isn’t this what superstars like Derrick Rose do? Even on the off nights for the team don’t they find the will to overtake bad teams on their own (Rose finished with 34 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists)? Rose flourishes on the next play, dishing off to an open Boozer and DeAndre, probably fearing giving up the bucket and the foul like the last play, let Boozer go straight to the rim for an easy two. The raucous crowd knew that the Clippers would give this up. After all they are the Clippers. While Baron did play a fantastic game, he did try to oblige by missing a lay-up with only a few seconds left, the Bulls getting the rebound with the opportunity for the win. The game down to the last 6 seconds, the Bulls gave the ball to Rose to do what he does best: get to the cup. Blake played great position defense after Rose blew past the perimeter defenders, forcing Rose into an almost impossible shot, except that Rasual helped out by fouling Rose right before the buzzer. Rose tranquilly sank the first one before short-arming the second shot, leaving DeAndre to get the rebound for the Clippers’ win, shocking everybody watching the game.

Without Joakim Noah to bother him, Blake had another outstanding game, scoring 29 points on 10 for 18 shooting, while grabbing 12 rebounds and passing out 4 assists, with the ancillary stat of recording his 15th straight double double. He scored his points from all over the place, off spin moves, fade-aways, hook shots, dunks, dunks and more dunks. He was all over the place, particularly effective in getting Boozer in foul trouble and keeping him off the glass. Blake just keeps getting better, and as Mike Smith will remind you, in this stretch of games, which is the majority of his year, he’s put up better simple offensive numbers than Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett in their primes. I have no idea how good Blake will be, but it’s clear that he’s already great. Here’s to his health.

What was strange was VDN deciding something that wasn’t broke, did need fixing. Unlike in the Detroit win where he reinserted Bledsoe into the starting line-up, VDN started Baron. I wrote in the pregame thread that I thought Baron would work better in the second unit, getting the spot-up shooters open looks while Bledsoe would work well in a secondary scorer role with the first unit. One of the problems that I had with starting Baron was that it takes the ball out of Eric Gordon’s hands, removing one of the Clippers biggest advantages to win. But then Baron goes out and plays his best basketball of the season, posting 16 points on 7 for 13 shooting and tallying 7 assists, as well as leading the team in +/- with a +8.

The Clippers rushed out to a 19-11 lead under Baron’s hand, but then gave away their lead with Bledsoe at the helm. The Bulls even were up as much as 5, after they went on a 20-7 run to have a 31-26 lead. But Baron came back in, albeit playing alongside Bledsoe, and led the Clippers back into the lead.

What was impressive, was that Baron even shot the ball pretty well and didn’t even take too many bad shots (I saw two ugly threes, but that wasn’t until later, once in the third and another but it was to beat the shot clock). It’s almost like he’s gotten so excited about throwing alley oop passes to Blake that the positivity infected the rest of his game.

Maybe the most impressive thing was that with the game winding down, Baron was at the top of the key with the shot clock winding down and started to dribble like he was going to chuck up his patented “I don’t care, I’m shooting this because I’m great” 3 pointer, yet, he thought, and went straight to the rack for a lefty lay up. I know that there will be mental gaffes when dealing with Baron, but it was encouraging to see him make that move.

The worry, if you saw the game, is whether Baron will be able integrate Eric Gordon into the mix. You could chalk it up to Gordon simply not playing well (he only finished with 15 points on 5 for 13 shooting, 2 assists and, gulp, 7 turnovers), but there was a clear focus on Baron and Blake in the offensive scheme. I did think it created better ball movement and quality shots that I’d seen from the Clippers all year (they shot 61 percent in the first half), but there needs to be an even ground where Baron and EJ can coexist.

Still, the Clippers looked more than energetic, which they more or less are every night, they looked confident, excepting the 35 second lapse at the end of the game. And they are bringing home a two game road winning streak back to Staples Center where they’ll face the Timberwolves on Monday. Dare they dream to make it a three game winning streak?

Awesome game, awesome win for the Clippers. Baron is playing a little better now. Baron and Blake seem to have great chemistry with each other. Now if he can develop some sort of cohesion with Eric then the Clippers can be a pretty good team.

clippman

love the energy by DJ. Overall good D but EJ has to get his handles under control. it is becoming a daily issue with him. Hope we can keep the consistent play up – ball movement is nice!!!

MannyA

Baron being back is definitely affecting Gordons game in a negative way. I’m glad they won these last 2 games and that Baron is playing better, but is Baron really in their plans for the future? They have to find a way to involve Gordon into their offense more or trade Baron. Hopefully with Baron playing better, it will actually allow the Clips to find a trade partner for Baron.

Clipped

If we want to win next 10 games in a row, Gordon should focus more on helping Baron run the team. This team needs a veteran like BD and Griffin needs an ally to help him improve his game.

Baron Davis is not done. I wanted him out the very season he signed 5 yr contract and didn’t like his detached attitude.

I believe, the very presence of Blake Griffin and realization of great prospect of a winning combination, Braon we see today isn’t the same one we signed. He is truly motivated and he’s dead serious about winning.. That’s what ERIC GORDON wanted from Baron this season.

That’s what we all wanted from him.

Now just forget about the past. Unite behind Baron Davis. GORDON should relax more and be happy about lessening of his duties. And he should focus entirely on his defense and shooting skills.

Qlippers

Clippers find a way to give me heart attack on 7 pt lead, we won!

Qlippers

“off spin moves, fade-aways, hook shots, dunks, dunks and more dunks”
He also had a three pointer

http://www.firedunleavy.com FD

Blake Griffin won that game for the Clippers.

Clipped

This is a team work. GRIFFIN is not about ME, MYSELF AND ME ALONE kind of guy(KOBE is).

He genuinely cares about his teammates. Opportunity to play with him is a rare privilege. He’ll make everyone better.

Make DTS better?? Really? He’s still out there badmouthing his own players. The man is terrible.

Griff did indeed win that game – he was there for every key rebound and was there challenging Rose on the final layup. Now if Butler hadn’t fouled Rose… impossible layup for sure, but the man was on fire.

Hard to say at that moment what you’d rather have – the tough contested shot or two clutch free throws. Putting Rose on the line won it for the Clips, but what a gamble!

clipperbull

With some excellent help from BD!

Neiru

BD knows where to put the ball..where Blake wants it. I don’t think he’s in the long term plans, but he’s here now and will be here this season at least. Bledsoe needs a lot of work to become a solid point guard. Good game. Like last game other guys were hitting shots. I like the movement and the improvement in our defense. We have become a scrappy team. We can become a playoff team next year if we make some smart moves.

Cris

Anyone know if something happened to Aminu? Didn’t play a single minute.

Joseph

He hasnt been playing good their trying to figure out which line ups work and dont work

trader’s block

He’s part of a trade deal which is in the works.

Kaman, Aminu and Willie Warren for CARMELO ANTHONY?

JaySee

Hmm… couldn’t the Clippers have traded Baron and (Butler or Gomes) for Lewis? Lewis would’ve filled the gap at 3. He can spread the floor and run.

Fear the beard

Exactly….

http://www.firedunleavy.com FD

There haven’t even been rumors of any trade. Oshley has shut it down for the season.

http://hitfix.com/awardscampaign jgroove

I’d like to know what Oshley does all day at work. Scour Facebook for new friends?

Joseph

dood please butler and gome have a cheap contract lewis has a huge contract and he isnt even playing that good this season. Why would we send 1 solid player and a spot up shooter for a more expensive above average player in Lewis. We have the cap space lets wait till the end of the year and get someone that we need.

JaySee

The reason the Wizards took him was for cap relief. His last year on his contract is not guaranteed. He’d only take up cap space for 2 years which we can very much afford. He fills our need. He has length, athleticism and shoots 3s. We have cap room that’s sitting doing nothing. Lewis backed by Aminu would be better than the crap rotation we have now of Gomes, Butler, Aminu at the 3. If it was Davis + Gomes the contracts would almost be a wash with Lewis’. Throw in Butler and it’s a wash.

People need to get over trading baron, not only is it not likely to happen, but any realistic scenario would end up being bad for the clippers

AfishLClipp

People need to get over trading baron, not only is it not likely to happen, but any realistic scenario would end up being bad for the clippers

Steve

You mean worse than being 7-21 with an old, selfish, past his prime point guard that doesn’t play D?

http://hitfix.com/awardscampaign jgroove

Eh, he played D last night

Joseph

thank you someone who understands

rawket……………..

considering the owner is not a fan of baron i think trade talks are here to stay…. unless he he starts pulling triple doubles out of his ahole

neiljlax

b is going to be fully plugged in now that he sees he really is playing with the next lebron.

Joseph

next lebron yeah right

trader’s block

Blake Griffin is better than LaBron.

trader’s block

He ain’t the King. He left Cleveland without a ring.

joeluis

Finally! a back to back ‘W’ We dodged a bullet there. I was throwing some bad karma in the last 40 seconds of the game. ‘Here we go again, lets see how we screw this one up’ seconds later at .11, ‘ok, i see how this is going to end up now! OT here we go!’ but nope. the NBA Gods have spoken! and given us a desperately needed win. Lets make it 3 in a row vs the T-wolves!!!!! We got this!!!

If blake, (im giving all the credit that he deserves) If blake keeps making his teamates better, like Mj used to, the sky is the limit!! (well maybe 2yrs frm now)

Leo V

Clippers need to make a trade for a Center and Power forward. This Colison guy doesn’t have speed or power. With our injuries we need some bodies to block out for rebounds and defense.

Neiru

We have our PF already. Our weakest position is the SF. Collison?? They guy in Oklahoma or the guard in Indiana?

Chris McD

I think he means Collins.

http://Lou Lou

I wonder how many fouls the referees call with 00 seconds, it was a good call, but my points if the Clippers could get these fair calls too. I agree with Neiru we need a three badly.